Although I have done the P90X Chest and Back workout many times, I haven’t really taken the time to break down this routine with a review and analysis. It has been awhile since I finished two rounds of P90X for over 180 consecutive days. Since finishing Tony Horton’s program, I have done Insanity as well as The Asylum if we’re talking Beachbody workouts. I have also done some random Crossfit routines as well as my own personal routines to stay in shape. I have a pretty good idea of what can be considered a hard workout and what types of routines are naturally easier.
An awesome workout...
When I threw in the Chest and Back DVD today, for some reason I thought that it was going to be pretty easy for me. During the warm up we did some arm circles and stretches, and the entire time I thought that this routine was going to be fairly tough, but not anything too wicked. If I am being honest, this routine completely took me by surprise and although I wouldn’t say I got my ass kicked like I have for some other workouts, this was a hard routine. By the time I finished this workout, I realized how good it really is and how much I love these exercises.
I would basically characterize Chest and Back as basically just good old fashioned push ups and pull ups with a few other random strength exercises (requiring dumbbells) in the mix. After the first round of this routine, my arms already felt swollen up like they were packing on muscle during the workout…haha. Most of the exercises were a challenge mixed with fun and some hilarious jokes from Tony Horton. Anyways, I’m going to break down how each of these exercises went for me today and what you can expect if you are just starting P90X. Also, you can check in the archives for the blogs that I posted of each day during my P90X experience… just go back in the P90X archives.
P90X: Chest and Back Review
The P90X cast and crew for this workout consisted of: Tony Horton, Maren, Bobby Stephenson, and Scott Fifer. What is pretty shocking to hear is that I read on another fitness site (Fitbomb) that Maren (Mareen Felix a.ka. Ms. German Potato Soup) used to be involved in hardcore porn movies. The rumor has been confirmed by multiple people who really researched these cast celebrities from P90X. And what is ridiculous is that her porn name is the exact same…Mareen.
Either she doesn’t give a flying eff about her public image or it’s just a stage name. With that said, it doesn’t take away from the fact that she kicks major ass in this workout and has a good attitude the entire time. It’s just some random P90X trivia that when I first heard had the following reaction: “WTF, LOL, wait…WTF are you serious? LMAO, hahaha” – I literally couldn’t contain the laughter. I personally don’t really think less of her though… Anyways, if you are going to Google creep on her, use caution and (antivirus) protection…haha.
I honestly don’t want to ever hear anyone say, oh the “Chest and Back workout” from P90X is really easy… I sometimes see people acting all “elitist” just because they finished P90X and moved onto something else. The reason that I would never say that this workout is “easy” is because you can always fight for more reps. And if you are one of the rare few who can do every single exercise for the full amount of time, you can always fight for more speed. I however would love to see someone who considers this workout “easy” show me legitimate reps on every move for the full amount of time – I doubt it will happen.
The bottom line is that if you push yourself during this workout, you are going to get results. It is one of the best designed workouts that I have ever done and targets the chest, arms, back, and upper body. It may not be as tough as the Upper Body Massacre, but it’s still nothing to underestimate or belittle. I think the fact that since P90X has been out for awhile, a lot of people moved on, and just totally forgot how much this routine rocks. I can testify for the fact that I hadn’t done this routine in a long time (over a year) and I totally forgot how badass this routine can be.
P90X: Chest and Back Workout Exercises
Warm Up & Stretch
- Knees to Hands – You start out by raising your knees to your hands above your waist. You want to get your knees up to loosen up a little bit.
- Run in Place – You then start running in place to get even more warmed up. You then run in place with your knees out and eventually keep your knees down and kick your heels up so that they hit your butt.
- Jumping Jacks – You basically do a very small basic jack at low intensity.
- Run Lunges – These are basically just slow running in place with your feet moving back and forth as well as your arms moving up and down.
- Head Rolls – You roll your head from shoulder to shoulder so that you loosen up your neck muscles.
- Chest Stretch – This is one of Tony’s favorite stretches and involves getting your feet wider than shoulder width, raising your arms up above your head while inhaling, and then exhaling while moving your elbows outward away from your body.
- Topas Stretch – You get down in horse stance, and when you inhale, you bring your palms back and fingers to the wall behind you. It really opens up your chest more so that you’re ready for the routine.
- Side Stretch – You reach overhead and stretch one arm at a time to the side so that you feel a stretch from your hips to your fingertips; this is a really good stretch.
- Arm Circles – You start out doing some small window washing circles and then progress to a bigger circle. You do the circles both forwards and in reverse so that your arms “burn.” The reason Tony wants your arms to burn is just so that your arms are fully warmed up before starting the routine.
- Shake it Out – You can just run in place and do a little bit of ballistic stretching. You shake out your arms and legs.
- Huggers – Hug yourself to warm up your arms.
- Swimmers – You do the back stroke and front stroke like swimmers in a pool.
- Reachers – Reach up so that the backs of your hands are to the back of the wall up towards the ceiling, and then reach back so that the palms of your hands are to the back of the wall.
- Shoulder Stretch – Reach across your body with one arm at a time so that you are stretching your shoulders and triceps.
- Neck Stretch – You make a “chicken wing” (one side at a time) and stretch your neck by looking up at the ceiling and down at the floor.
Round #1: Chest & Back Workout
First Set
Standard Push Ups – The first round of standard push ups aren’t really that bad, but definitely let your arms know what the eff they are in for during this routine. Even though the tip of the day was “to pace yourself” because we have two rounds, I don’t do pacing. I’m still in the mindset that I was in for The Asylum where you need to be ready to go H.A.M. from the start. For these I used the push up stands that I had to get a deeper range of motion. I ended up doing a total of 40 reps and felt pretty good about that number.
Me with all my gear and recorded numbers... swag swag swag
Wide Front Pull Ups – Damn, right after you get a nice pump and some blood rushing to your arms from the push ups, you get to do some maximum rep wide front pull ups. These were pretty wicked after the push ups, but I still managed to eek out 21 reps. I believe that I did take one mid-set break to regain composure, but felt as though I was off to a good start. If you are doing P90X for the first time, you are going to have no idea how much more your arms are going to burn before you are done with this first round.
Military Push Ups – At this point you should understand how the workout is going to be sequenced: push ups, pull ups, push ups, pull ups, etc. Fortunately Tony does keep things interesting by having us do different types of push ups and pull ups. The military push ups involve putting your hands close to the side of your body and when you go down for the push up, your elbows should go straight back. If you are using proper form and keeping your elbows locked back, you should struggle through these – especially near the end of the timer. My first round through I was able to do a total of 20 reps with the push up stands.
Reverse Grip Chin Ups – In case you don’t know, reverse grip chin ups involve gripping the pull up bar with an underhand grip and pulling your chin above the bar. You will notice that your biceps are heavily engaged during this particular exercise. In order to make sure that you are getting a good challenge, make sure that you drop all the way down with each rep so that your arms are completely straight at the bottom. At this point my arms were getting pretty fucking tired but I still felt good with the fact that I cranked out 11 reps. If you push yourself hard early, you will notice that rep counts in later exercises decline and that’s perfectly okay. Focus less on the numbers and more on using good form so that you actually get the greatest possible burn.
Water Break – Every four exercises in this workout you get a little bit of time to take a break, shake it out, and get some water.
Second Set
Wide Fly Push Ups – These are probably my favorite push ups in the entire routine because my arms are already fried from the other types. They are probably the easiest type of push ups in this workout, but still will engage your delts, shoulders, triceps, and biceps. To do these, just spread your hands wider than shoulder width, but don’t spread them too wide – try to find a good balance. I used the push up stands once again for these and was able to manage 30 reps in this first round. My arms were basically en fuegisimo once I finished these, but I still had a lot more burn to go.
Close Grip Overhand Pull Ups – For the close grip overhand pull ups, you put your hands close enough together so that your thumbs can touch if you extend them out. This type of pull up really works your entire core as well as your forearms. During this first round I felt lucky to have made it to double digits with 11 reps. Tony considers 12 reps or more to be “extreme” and I was kind of pissed that I didn’t get 12, but I still felt good. If you are going all the way down for full range of motion, these should be wicked. If you are able to do more than 15 reps, I would say that you either: aren’t going down all the way, aren’t using proper form, or are using a chair for support…haha.
Decline Push Ups – Oh shit, decline push ups can seriously do some damage and put your arms out of commission if you do a lot. The greater the decline, the tougher time you will have with these. As I did for this entire workout during the push up exercises, I continued to use the push up stands for that extra range and depth. I used a normal size chair and they were still pretty damn wicked. I was able to do 20 reps during my first round and felt really good about it. I was thinking about the fact that if I would have kicked my feet up on the same ledge that I used for pike presses in Diamond Delts, it probably would have turned into a faceplant. Don’t mess around on these and be careful so that you don’t eat floor if your arms decide to give out…haha.
Heavy Pants – Going into the move called “heavy pants” was a good change of pace. I decided to use 45 lb. dumbbells because that’s what the cool kids of the P90X cast were using. Admittedly they are probably stronger than me, but I was able to do 8 reps with 45 lbs. and was feeling the burn by the final rep. I did some extra reps because when you do only 8, you are probably going to have plenty of time left over. In order to do the “heavy pants” move, you grab two dumbbells, bend over (while maintaining a flat back) and pull up the dumbbells on your sides so that the weight comes up. Think of it like this: instead of pulling up your pants, you are pulling up some heavy dumbbells.
Water Break – Get some more water and continue to shake it out in between these exercises. Be ready to go though, the clock ticks away quickly.
Third Set
Diamond Push Ups – The burn is here boys and girls… These diamond push ups are uber cray cray a.k.a. extremely crazy. To do a diamond push up, you put your hands together like Jay-Z would when he throws up the Roc for Rocafella Records, and then you put them on the ground in front of your chest – you should see the outline of a diamond shape. Anyways, once your hands are on the ground, you go all the way down so that your heart touches your hands right where the diamond shape is held. These are tough if you are challenging yourself to touch down all the way on each rep. If you use the push up stands, you basically butt the high sides of the stands next to each other and when you come down, the center of your chest should touch the bars. Either way, the burn is going to be there and you are going to hate the fact that you only finished the first round of these. I managed to do a total of 20 diamond push ups my first round… Which I was pretty damn happy with.
Lawnmowers – Damn I love doing lawnmowers because every single time I do them, it reminds me how much our “Lawn Boy” mower is a big piece of shit…haha. Although I’ll always be cool with the Lawn Boy mower that we owned, I feel like it’s a matter of time before I get black lung from the cumulonimbus clouds of smog that it likes to spam everywhere. Anyways, for this exercise, you basically get down with one leg back (front leg bent) and rest your front elbow on your front knee. You need a dumbbell to use and I chose to rock with 60 lbs. and it worked perfectly. I managed to do 9 reps with each arm the first round. I suggest going heavy and going for 8 to 12 reps if you want to build muscle. If you want to maintain muscle and just tone them, go with a lighter weight for 12 to 15 reps.
Dive Bomber Push Ups – I thought that dive bombers were going to be easy, but at the end of the round they are always burning up the arms. I managed to do 10 rotations (forward and back I counted as a single rep). In order to do dive bomber push ups, you basically go into a downward dog with wide hands and wide feet, and then imagine that you have to slide underneath a fence. So you drop down, slide through the fence, and then pop up on the other side. Then you slide back under and you are done with a single rep – these are pretty wicked at this point in the workout because your arms are going to be tired if you pushed yourself hard with the other exercises up to this point.
Back Flys – Doing a back fly involves sitting down on a chair with your legs together and you bending forward. You grip a dumbbell in each hand and then do a “fly” so that you are engaging your back muscles. If you watch Tony, he shows you exactly what you should be doing and what you shouldn’t be doing. You want it to look like you are doing a fly – think of trying to touch your elbows behind your back with each rep; that’s the proper motion. I know that I felt my back muscles working. Be careful to not let your ego get in the way on this one, choose a weight that allows you to properly do the exercise. If you are picking too heavy of weight, there is a good chance that your form will suffer. I think I ended up using 20 lbs. in each hand and even though it may have been a little light, I know I was doing the proper exercise. This was a great exercise to end the first half of the workout, but I knew that I still had a long way to go.
Water Break – At the halfway point during the Chest and Back workout, you get a full minute to replenish your body with water, shake out your muscles, and do what you need to do. I recommend staying away from static arm stretches during this time (so does Tony) because they may actually tire your arms out. Just shake it out if you need to and towel off any sweat that’s drippin.
Round #2: Chest & Back Workout
The second round of Chest and Back is structured differently than the first round. In each of the sets that you do, the moves are flipped. Tony tries to explain it before you start, but it may sound a little bit confusing until you actually start. You don’t really need to worry though because they still announce each of the exercises before you do them. I really like how he flipped things up for the second round. I was thinking that it may be cool to just do all of the exercises in reverse order until I realized that military push ups would be near the end… and so I’m glad Mr. Horton didn’t flip it as much as he could’ve.
First Set
Wide Front Pull Ups – Instead of starting this round with push ups, you do the second move of the first round as your first exercise of the second round. So even though we started out with wide front pull ups, my arms were still feeling swollen up from the first round of work. Even though there was a “tip of the day” to “pace yourself” I definitely said fuck it – I’m going all out…haha. I actually think it’s better to just go all out from the first round, but I think the reason he gives that tip is because some people may not be able to even handle this routine – and for those people – it’s actually really good advice. The break that we got for the full minute before this move really helped me and I still was able to knock out 15 wide front pull ups.
Standard Push Ups – I actually love doing push ups, but these were pretty tough. The first round I definitely did pretty damn good and I actually surprised myself this round by doing 35. I was going all out during this second round and was still using my good ole push up stands for deeper range of motion.
Reverse Grip Chin Ups – During the second round of reverse grip chin ups, I can vividly remember my arms burning and feeling absolutely pwnd, but I managed to do 9 reps which was only a couple less than my first round. I’m actually kind of glad that these were before military push ups this round, but they were still pretty damn wicked. These are the pull ups that really work your biceps to the max.
Military Push Ups – For the second round of military push ups, I managed to do a total of 16 reps. I was fighting for 20, but my arms literally just gave out. This type of push up and the diamonds are arguably the hardest two types in the workout. I would argue that in some cases (depending on how good your form is as well as your range of motion) that they can be just as tough as the diamonds. I continued to use the super cool push up stands and my triceps were muy caliente (very hot) with the burn by the time I finished this second set. I did realize that I was still only a third of the way through the second round though – but I was continuing to say “bring it”…haha.
Water Break – At this point, you are officially one fourth of the way done with the final round – get some water, stay focused, and continue to push yourself.
Second Set
Close Grip Overhand Pull Ups – I really impressed myself during the second round with these because I managed to do a total of 10 reps (which was only one less than the first round). These continued to bring the burn to my forearms and I think they are supposed to when your hands are so close together. My advice for you if you are doing these is to make sure you are going all the way down with your reps so that your arms are fully extended on the bottom of each rep.
Wide Fly Push Ups – Thank the lord for wide fly push ups…haha. This is one of my favorite moves in the entire routine because it gives me a little bit of a break. I still managed to do 24 reps which is six less than my first round, but my shoulders, arms, and entire chest felt the burn by the time I finished this second round.
Heavy Pants – During this second round my arms were really exhausted so I was shooting for 8 reps and was able to do it while maintain 45 lbs. in each hand. What if your pants really weighed 90 lbs.? Haha. The whole key during the second round is to make sure that you focus and don’t lose sight of proper form. You want to go all out and challenge yourself, but keep good positioning and make sure you maintain a flat back.
Decline Push Ups – The decline push ups are super tough this second round of the workout. The greater the decline (in terms of steepness) the tougher these are going to be. I used a regular chair and was able to do 18 reps. I still used the push up stands for these and gave my arms an even deeper range on the push up. These are tough and if your arms go out, you may end up eating floor, so try to avoid that if possible.
Water Break – This is your last quick water break before the workout ends. So get whatever fluids you need and be prepared to go H.A.M. on the last four exercises.
Third Set
Lawnmowers – Ahh yeah back to pulling the starter on my shiesty lawnmower…haha. During the second round I did 10 reps on each side with 60 lbs. In other words, I actually did one more rep on each side than I did during the first round while maintaining the same weight. For both the first and second rounds my arms were really tired during these, but I somehow fought through for one extra on each side. Maybe that’s a sign that I need to increase my weight? Or maybe I just got lucky, I don’t know, but I gave it everything I had for both rounds.
Diamond Push Ups – Hell yeah, doing the diamond push ups are another one of my favorite exercises, but they are damn wicked sometimes. As I already mentioned, these are tough during both rounds and are probably the hardest form of push up that you do in this workout. If you do a full range low military push up though like I do (more like a chaturanga push up) then those may be just as tough or tougher. I managed to do 18 reps during this second round which was 2 more reps than my military push up count for this round.
Back Flys – When you make it to back flys, in the back of your mind you are happy that you are down to the final two exercises. In my opinion both still work the chest, back, and arms, but aren’t as challenging as some of the other exercise pairings. For this second round, I did 14 reps with 20 lbs. in each hand. So once again I actually increased my number of reps in comparison to the first round. Since these work different muscles and are a different motion than the other exercises, you may be able to do more of these. Just make sure you are keeping good form and using a tough weight.
Dive Bomber Push Ups – This was the final move of the workout and I was lagging from tiredness, but I got right to the dive bombers and managed to get my ass into gear to do a total of 10 rotations just like I did in the first round. In the first round I think I was doing these slower and more controlled and the second round I was still controlled and had good form, but I was going for speed. I also wanted to see how many reps my arms could handle and the magic number was 10 rotations (forward and back 10 times) even though the last three reps were killer; I think I took little mid-rotation stops to regain my composure for the last few. I absolutely love how the music picks up and it’s like a rock concert for this final set – that definitely helped me dig deep.
Cool Down Stretch
When you make it to the cool down, you will probably want to get some water before you cap off this workout. If you have a recovery formula mixed up, I would recommend that you get a quick sip of that before you do the stretches. When you are finished with the stretches, you may want to have more before moving on to Ab Ripper X. Many of these stretches are the exact same as the stretches that you did in the warm up, but they make for a really good cool down.
- Shake It Out – During the cool down, Tony makes sure that you get plenty of time to “shake it out” or do ballistic stretching. So you shake out your arms, shoulders, lets, hands, etc. It helps relieve a little bit of the tension.
- Huggers – The huggers are awesome because they continue to loosen up the arms – you basically just hug yourself with your own arms for having survived the workout…haha.
- Swimmers – These are just single arm circles forwards and backwards with one arm at a time to help loosen up your shoulders and arms.
- Side Arm Stretch – These are basically standing oblique stretches with your arms overhead. But the goal here is for them to loosen up your arms and they do a very good job at that, especially your delts, shoulders, and triceps.
- Folded Arm Rockers – For these you keep your legs wider than shoulder width, bend over, fold your arms, put your head down with your arms, and rock back and forth. You should feel a subtle stretch in your hamstrings during these. It also helps relieve some tension in your back if there is any.
- Cat Stretch – This is the best stretch for your back and spine. You put your hands on the floor underneath your shoulders, your knees under your hips, and you round your back then straighten with each breath. The goal is to synchronize the breath with the motion and you’ll feel your back loosen up.
- Seated Arm Stretch – You should feel this “from your hips to your fingertips” as Tony would say. Anyways, you basically sit back into child’s pose and you stretch your arms to the right and left for the final stretch before Ab Ripper X. A good way to end this routine, but feel free to do more stretches if you feel like you need them.
P90X: Chest and Back Review (Conclusion)
The P90X Chest and Back workout is one of the most effective chest and back workouts that I have ever done. Although I have done it plenty of times before today, I haven’t done it with the mindset of writing a thorough review and analysis. Today I went into it trying to “do my best and forget the rest,” and I realized the impressiveness of this routine. The amazing thing about this workout is that it is as hard as you make it – if you want to challenge yourself, you can do more reps. The only way I think that this routine could be “easy” is if you aren’t using proper form on your reps – that’s it. If you really are going for maximum reps during both the first and second round of the workout, I know for a fact that you will feel the burn.
So how hard is the Chest and Back workout?
As I already mentioned, this routine is as hard as YOU make it. If you dig deep and go for maximum reps during every single move, you are going to feel like you got a great workout by the time this routine is over. I would make the argument that the Upper Body Massacre is tougher because it is longer, but it is different. In that workout, you get longer breaks for your arms to get some energy back before jumping to the next move. In this workout you get some breaks, but they are not nearly as long and you don’t get breaks in between every move.
The bottom line: Your arms will get owned
So in this routine your arms don’t get much recovery time and you are doing maximum rep push ups and pull ups for over 40 minutes – your arms are going to get owned. Another comparison people probably want me to make is this routine with the Strength workout from The Asylum. They are different but I would have to say that Strength is harder because you are going all out from the start of the warm up. But since I like to mix it up and always like to do different workouts, this routine was perfect. I think that it was perfectly engineered too by Tony Horton because it engages your chest, back, and pretty much every muscle in your arms before it’s over.
One of the most solid workouts I’ve ever done
If someone asked me what a solid workout would be to target the upper body, I would tell them to do P90X Chest and Back because it is perfectly designed. I personally love the fact that I got an amazing workout in less than an hour. By the time you’re done with it, your entire body is drenched in sweat and you KNOW that you got a REAL workout. If you do this routine and have already finished P90X like me, it is up to you as to whether or not you want to do Ab Ripper X after. Today I decided to do Ab Ripper X just because it brought back memories and I wanted to see how tough it would be. It turned out to be wickedly tough and although I still think Killer Abs is harder, Ab Ripper X was wicked after a hard workout like Chest and Back.
Final tip: Use proper form and don’t cheat yourself
Anyways, hopefully you are able to find the strength to push through Chest and Back with proper form. My words of wisdom would be to not get too caught up in the numbers game with push ups and pull ups if you’re first starting out. Make sure you are going all the way down and getting full range of motion – don’t cheat yourself. I would personally rather only be able to do 5 legitimate pull ups than 20 half-assed ones. In any area of life, including fitness, it’s always quality over quantity – so do your best, but make sure you are using good form. The more you do this routine, the better you are going to get. So just chill out if you think you’re a noob – everybody starts somewhere – the only way to go is up.